In the group are Lee (an American Doctor), Pema (my meditation teacher in Dharamsala), Champa (another Tibetan friend) and Marc (a British student of Buddhism). On the second day we all walked down to go for a swim together, and discovered a fish washed up on shore. Pema put him back in the water. Then we noticed lots of small jellyfish lying on the beach, and Pema began to scoop them up in hand-fulls of sand and shuttle them to the water. He told me a story about a man who finds thousands of fish washed up on the beach. He begins to throw them back into the water. Another man tells him that it won’t make any difference, since there are so many. The first man picks up another fish and puts it in the water and says, “for that fish I made a difference.”
At the end of my second day swimming, my ear became plugged with water. It hadn’t cleared by morning, so I decided to go to the hospital. Our hotel manager gave me the name of an ear, nose and throat doctor, and Lee and I headed off to the hospital. When we arrived, I was led by a young man to the registration area, where I was taken to a side door, thus skipping a long line. Next I was whisked away to the doctor’s office. The doctor was waiting for me, and looked at my ear immediately. He wore a reflecting mirror on his head to give him light. He told me that it was blocked with wax, and sent me to another building. Here I was told to wait outside a door marked “Operating Theatre”. Minutes later I was brought in and placed on a table. With the help of five nurses, he began to scrape away the wax in my ear. It took about 10 minutes, but in the end I could hear. He sent me home with eardrops to ensure against infection.

On the day after Christmas, Raj, Lee and I caught a bus up to the Periyar Wildlife Park. There is a large lake, and we were hoping to take a boat ride. Unfortunately, hoards of other tourists had the same idea, and we came a bit late. Luckily we had a local contact who arranged a short hike in the park. We had a ranger (who was from one of the local mountain tribes) to guide us. To start, we pulled ourselves accross part of the lake on a bamboo raft. The air smelled fresh. As we hiked we could hear what sounded like trees breaking, and knew there were elephants around. We managed to spot two of them accross the small valley.
We left Lee in the mountains and came back to Raj’s house. Finally I decided where I would go, and the next day headed back to Varkala and the beach. I was sent off with lots of coffee and pepper from the family estate. And promised to visit them when I returned to Kerala.
I was immediately happy that I had returned to Varkala. The first evening I met a film maker from Delhi. He was sitting with a young shop owner playing guitar. I sat with them for several hours as they took turns strumming, and then a couple of us went to eat dinner. We walked past the big tourist restaurants and found a little hut further down the cliff. Here we had dosas (large, crispy crepes filled with potato curry) which were cooked on a wood fired grill. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in India.
I have also met two Tibetans through Champa. They run a small Tibetan shop. I offered to tutor them in English. Last night they invited me to dinner, so I have gotten my Tibetan food fix.
After two days staying at a hotel on the cliff, I met a Canadian who was looking for a place further out. I walked with him and we found a little guest house with six rooms facing the water about 80 feet from the beach. I moved there yesterday, and woke up this morning to the sound of the surf.

There was something about sitting in the tropical warmth under a palm tree, watching the surf which made it hard for me to believe it was New Year’s Eve. Helena and I stayed up at my islolated hotel on the beach. We sat and talked, and drank a beer that my hotel guys smuggled out to us (hotels and restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol, and usually put beer in tea pots…”special tea”). We almost missed midnight, but I happened to look at my watch a few minutes before. Far down the beach we could see the fireworks from the cliff. It was a very quiet, relaxed way to start the new year.
When the new year arrived on the East Coast, I was just finishing by coffee and breakfast. I paused to wish you all a happy new year. I did so again the next 3 hours. It was strange to be so far into the new year, and realize that some of you were still in 2003.
So, Happy New Year! I hope your year has started off well!